He says:

“The Jabriyyah, whose pioneer was Jahm ibn Safwān, said: Knowledge of Allah arises through Allah’s choice, not the servant’s choice. They based this on their doctrine concerning reports.”

Ibn al-Zāghūnī says:

“This issue yields a valuable insight: whoever holds that knowledge of Allah is obligatory and must be acquired maintains that Allah punishes the servant for ignorance of Allah, ignorance of religion, and false belief. As for whoever holds that such knowledge arises necessarily, he maintains that the implication is that Allah cannot punish the ignorant person for his ignorance or for failing to acquire knowledge, since that is beyond his power. Rather, He punishes him for rejecting and denying what He has necessarily caused him to know.”

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What we have stated—that the Messengers, may Allah’s blessings be upon them, explained rational methods to people, drew their attention to them, and guided them to them—is not only known to us; it has also been stated by various leading theologians and philosophers.

The theologians who place the greatest value on rational methods are the Mu‘tazilah. Just as they maintain that knowledge can initially be attained only through reason, they also maintain that it is obligatory on rational grounds. This rests on the view that reason enables one to discern obligation and prohibition, and moral good and evil.

Later scholars from most groups disputed this principle. Among the followers of each of Mālik, al-Shāfi‘ī, and Ahmad, there are two positions on it. As for the Hanafīs, their well-known position is that reason judges things to be morally good or evil. They transmitted this position from Abū Hanīfah himself, reporting that he held knowledge of Allah Most High to be obligatory on rational grounds.

The scholars of hadith, the Sufis, and others also disagree over this principle. And among